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Mythe of the Body : Performlng Identlty ln Genet by Sheenagh Pletrobruno A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research ln partial fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of Mastera of Arta Program of Comparative Literature McGIII University Montreal July, 1992 © Sheenagh Pietrobruno. 1992 ( 1 Table of Contents .~bstract ...................................................................................................... .. Résumé.................................................................................... ................ .. ii Introduction .............. ................................................................................ .. Sexual Identity and Body Performance in Genet............................... .. 8 Race, Ritual and Play in Les Nègres..................................... ................. 40 Conclusion. ......... ................. ............... ...................................... ................. 74 Bibfiography................................................................................................. 80 .' Abstract The issue of sexual and raci~1 identity lJ:1folds in a paradoxicat light in Genet's works. Identi1y as a fixed essence IS both deconstructed and maintained. His enigmatic po rt rayai of identity is addressed trom a theoretical perspective which combines seemingly contradictory positions, namely essentialism and deconstruction. Such a theoretical stand claims that although identity categories are not fixed essences and consequently can be deconstructed, they must be maintained as political categories in order to deal with oppressive systems which construct essentialist-based identities. Through Ger.et's presentation of identity as a body performance, race and sex are dect:lnstructed. At the same time, he iIIustrates how male dominance and racism maintain identities as fixed categories. r 1 1 Résumé Dans les oeuvres de Jean Genet le problème de l'identité raciale et sexuelle est posée de manière paradoxale, en ce sens que l'Identité est perçue comme une catégorie essentielle qu'il faut à la fois déconstruire et maintenir Dans ce mémoire nous analysons la catégorie de l'Identité à partir d'une perspective théorique qui réunit deux positions a priori opposées' celle de l'essentialisme et cellp. de la déconstruction. Une telle perspective théorique permet d'avancer qu", bien que l'identité ne constitue pas une essence et pUisse en conséquence être déconstruite, il convient de la maintenir comme essence à des fins politiques pour rendre compte des systèmes oppnmants qUi construisent des catégories fixes et essentielles. En montrant que l'Identité est fondée sur des actes corporels, Genet déconstruit l'identité comme cat6yorie fixe. En même temps, il montre comment la dominance mascultnb et le racisme entretiennent une vision essentielle de l'identité sexuelle et raciaie I Introduction Emerging from Jean Genet's writing are issues whlch dominate theoretlcal concerns of race-relations and feminism. It may seem incongruous to apply a femlnlst framewOi k to those works of Genet which focus on issues of sexuahty since they deal primarily with male homosexuality and not specifically with the concerns of women. Nevertheless, Genet's pr:marily homosexual world, in which issues of masculinity and femininity em~rge, can be positioned within a feminist sphere ' ln contrast to Genet's cryptlc; feminist stance, his concern with racial oppression, in particular white racism toward blacks, is eVldent ln hls writing and his political actions. Jean Genet's play Les Nègres, written in 1958, deals explicitly with the Issue of the oppression of blacks in a white domlnated society.2 Furthermore, in 1970, he worked against racism by assisting the Black Panther Party to rail y the support of white American college students for the hberation of Bobby Seale and to stop the genocide of the Black Panthers and the black people.~ Jean Genet did not only support the concerns of the Black Panther movement but fought agalnst other oppressive forces. He helped the PLO ln Jordan and demonstrated for Aigerian imr..igrants in France.· ln his writlng, Genet spoke for society's marginalized and "inVisible" people - 1 Both Cynthia Runnlng Rowe and Kate Millet have done feminist readings of Genet's work. See Rowe, Cynthia Running, "Jean Genet and Hélène Cixous: Reading Genet through the Feminine" 0 A 1. 1986 Sept.; 47 (3): 927A, ''The Medusa's Tale" Femininf'l Writing and La Genet Romantlc Review 80 3 (1989) . 483-495, Kate Millet, Sexual Polltics (New York: Ballantine, 1970) 470-507. 2 Jean Genet wrote a nJmber of articles which deal wlth racism towards blacks in America dunng the 1970's and the role of the Black Panthers. Se€I"Angela et ses freres," Le Nouvel Observateur 303 (31 Aug 1970) 19-21; trans. Judy Onnger; "Here and Now for Bobby Seale," Ramparts8 12 (June 197): 30-31, May Day Speech description by Allen Ginsberg (San Francisco: City Light Books, 1970) ; "Genet: Whites and the Panthers", Willamette Bridge 3.14 (3 April 1970): 7. 3 Robert Sandarg, "Jean Genet and the Black Panther Party," Journal of Black Studies. 16.3 (1986)' 272 • Ibid, 281 r- 2 , ! criminals, maids, homosexuals and blacks. Genet has been often regarded ~s a spokesperson for oppressed people Where the approach to Genet propose<.. in thls thesis deviates from otner analyses of hls wnting IS the way ln which It attempts to show that Issues of Identlty, performance and oppression are intertwi ned It is through Genet's enigmatic portrayal of Identlty that the problematlcs of raCial and sexual differentiation surfaces. The present analyses keeps allve and works within Genet's paradoxica: portrayalof identity rather than resolving it as a large number of his critics have done. In Jean-Paul Sartre's analysls of Genet, related in Saint Genet: Comédien et Martyr, he resolves the contradictions in Genet's writing. The issue of identity in Genet's works has been largely vlewed from a Sartrian perspective The influence of Sartre IS strongly felt in much of the eritical literature on Genet. Hidden behlnd the various ideologieal frameworks of Genet's major eritics, sueh as the polltlcal approaeh of Philip Thody, the sociologieal analysls of Lucien Goldmann and the mythologieal study of Lewis Cetta, is Sartre's Genet. Furthermore, Joseph MeMahon and Richard Coe's philosophical approach to Genet's writing eehoes Sartrian existentialism.5 Although Sartre's philosophieal understanding of Genet eontams insightful elements, the Sartrian approaeh does impose certain coneeptual frameworks whieh are not eompletely reflective of Genet's texts. The way ln whieh Sartre addresses the paradox in Genet's writing suppresses its creative potentia/. The eontradictio'l which structures most of Genet's works IS the 5 Philip Thody, Jean Genet: A Study of His Novais and Plays (New York: Stein and Day, 1969), Lucien Goldmann, "The Thaater of Genet: A Sociologieal Study," Genet. A Collection of Crltlcal Essays. ad. Peter Brooks and Joseph Halpem (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prantica-Hall, 1979),31- 46; Lewis Catta, Profane Play. Ritual, and Jean Genet (Univers;(y. AI.: University of Alabama Press, 1979); Richard Coa, The Vision of Jean Genet(NewYorl<: Grove Press. 1968). Joseph McMahon, The Imagination of Jean Genet(New Haven. CT.: Yale UP. 1963) , l 3 following. The characters of both Genet's novels and his plays are imprisoned by Identlties which are imposed upon them by a dominant authority and consequently determine thelr essence At the same time, he reveals that the Imposed identltles and the power of the subjugator are illusionary. Sartre resolves th,s instabllity ln Ge"et's work in a theory whlch i$ based on a partial blographlcal account of Genet's life. According to Sartre, Genet's being, his identlty as a thief, had been Imposed upon him by the good bourgeois society As Genet can only seize hls eXistence through the other, he ie compelled to live in the world of appearance and falseness. According to Sertre, ail of Genet's behaviour, his criminal, nomosexual and artistlc activlties, were motivated towards realizlng the singular goal of capturing the identity that had been cast upon him. For Genet the attainment of true being is an impossibility. Sartre alsc reveals that the identity of the dominant authority, which determines the essence of the subordinate other, is also false. Nevertheless, Sartre reinstates the false identlty by concludlng that a false one is more true than a real one.'. Rather than dealing with the simultaneous presence of the rea! and the false in Genet's works, Sartre eradlcates the parado>:. Although certain concepts that Sartre isolates in Genet's works, namely the iIIusionary power of the dom inant authonty, the equation of appearance and essence, and the link between identity and gesture, cohere with the port rayai of identity that emerges in Genet's writing, Sartre's theory if applied faithfully to Genet's plays and novels does not take into account the paradoxical portrayal of identity.8 As Genet does not resolve the paradoxical portrayal of identity, it is surely possible that he wants the contradictions in his writing to remain intact. Although Genet's realm IS divided into binary polarities, he nonetheless allows for their interconnection. Sartre's imposition of a rigid framework of binary ( • Saint Genet: Comédien et Martyr (Paris: Gallimard, 1952) J- - 4 polanties upon Genet's wnting does not take Into account the Interplay of bmary OppoSitions It IS only by approaching the Issue or Identlty wlthin ItS paradox
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